Letters to the Editor

Underground systems not known well enough

Posted:
06/17/2014 08:05:45 PM MDT

Perhaps I'm revealing my ignorance here, but I have to ask.

I have lived in Colorado all my life and vacationed all over the state. One of my favorite things is visiting the many natural hot springs around the state. (They number in the hundreds). As I understand it those hot springs are created by water seeping down through the earth to a tremendous depth where the water is heated by the heat from the earth's core. Then the heated water moves back up through the rock and dirt and emerges as a hot spring. This process is continuous and millions of gallons of water move through the "system" every week.

However in many of the arguments supporting "fracking" we are told that the fracking fluids are injected into the rock "way below" the water table so they "can't" affect our groundwater. But if the hundreds of natural hot springs in Colorado are a result of water cycling up and down, as deep as two or more miles, over and over, it tells me that the system is very "fluid."

So what is to keep the dangerous, toxic fluids used in fracking from doing the same? How can it possibly be safe?